The mourner directory, guiding him to the middle way betwixt the two extremes, defect,…The mourner directory, guiding him to the middle way betwixt the two extreams, defect,…

These being granted, that your Father or Mother, Husband or Wife, or Child is dead, you sorrow and grieve, you weep and wall, you lament and mourn; there is your Humanity and Natural Passion, because your Relation is broke; but where is your Christianity in this sorrow, when you had not one Tear (amongst so many) for the Sins against God and them, while you stood in that Relation? And yet do not you see, while your natural sorrow is abundant, your Spiritual sorrow is defective, or none at all in this respect? Where are your ⟨p. 72⟩Tears for your disobedience to your Father or Mother when alive? Where is the Husband's sorrow for undue and unjust grieving of his Wife, saddening her Heart, and sending her by his unkindness to her Knees in secret to open her Case, and pour out her Tears and Soul before God in Prayer? Did you without cause make her weep when alive, and shall not this in all your sorrow for her when dead, make you sorrow for sinning against God and her before she died? According as your Relative Sins were, more or less, greater or smaller, when the Relation held; it's time, it's high time to sorrow for them, when by death it is broke; and so show your self a Christian, as well as a Man in sorrowing for your dead. And do this now, if you have not hitherto; tho your Father or Mother, Husband or Wife, or Child, be long since dead and turned into dust, their rotted Flesh and dry Bones, and bare Skull in the Grave do cry to God against you. Therefore while you sorrow for their dead Bodies, sorrow also for your own sinful Souls, because you sinned so much against them in their Life-time.

These being granted, that your Father or Mother, Husband or Wife, or Child is dead, you sorrow and grieve, you weep and wall, you lament and mourn; there is your Humanity and Natural Passion, because your Relation is broke; but where is your Christianity in this sorrow, when you had not one Tear (amongst so many) for the Sins against God and them, while you stood in that Relation? And yet do not you see, while your natural sorrow is abundant, your Spiritual sorrow is defective, or none at all in this respect? Where are your ⟨p. 72⟩Tears for your disobedience to your Father or Mother when alive? Where is the Husband's sorrow for undue and unjust grieving of his Wife, sadning her Heart, and sending her by his unkindness to her Knees in secret to open her Case, and pour out her Tears and Soul before God in Prayer? Did you without cause make her weep when alive, and shall not this in all your sorrow for her when dead, make you sorrow for sinning against God and her before she died? According as your Relative Sins were, more or less, greater or smaller, when the Relation held; it's time, it's high time to sorrow for them, when by death it is broke; and so shew your self a Christian, as well as a Man in sorrowing for your dead. And do this now, if you have not hitherto; tho your Father or Mother, Husband or Wife, or Child, be long since dead and turned into dust, their rotted Flesh and dry Bones, and bare Skull in the Grave do cry to God against you. Therefore while you sorrow for their dead Bodies, sorrow also for your own sinful Souls, because you sinned so much against them in their Life-time.